


Friends

by ciTohCysP



Series: Old RvB Works [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends, Fix-It, Fluff, Friendship, Old work, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Season/Series 06 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 17:42:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5300759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciTohCysP/pseuds/ciTohCysP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doc felt a little happy at the thought of giving O'Malley some of his good traits. 'Maybe those meditation sessions are working...'<br/>'No. They're not. And if you make us- me listen to one more of those crappy CDs then I will take over and torture the pink one with your hands.'<br/>'...His name is Donut...' he thought without anything better to say.<br/>'Yes, that's what I thought,' O'Malley though with a dark chuckle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

"Well it's not _my_ fault he blew up, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," The echoey voice came from the grey hologram perched on his host's shoulder, "As in he was standing in front of my rocket launcher when I pulled the trigger."

"O'malley, we talked about this," The purple medic said in a patronizing tone as though he were talking to a small child rather than a murderous AI. "What do you do when you get angry?"

"I blow them up," He responded with a dark laugh, ignoring the others drilled over attempt at anger management.

Doc continued on, brushing aside the blood curdling laugh, "No, we take deep breaths and count to ten."

"Count to ten! What are we, six?!" O'malley spat accidentally taking on Doc's annoying habit of referring to themselves as we.

"One… Two…" Doc starting counting up as soon as O'malley's temper began to flare up.

O'malley was silent as Doc continued to count, his annoyance only rising with each number that was supposed to be calming him down. He wished for what seemed like the billionth time that someone, _anyone_ , would open up a radio channel that he could latch onto. He would take anyone over this blabbering idiot with his ridiculous antics and his pathetically cheery demeanor.

"Three… Four…"

Actually, now that he thought about it, why was he still in Doc's body? There had been plenty of times when the opportunity had arisen to jump to someone else, and even when he did, he'd always up back with Doc in the end.

"Five… Six…"

Sharing a mind with Caboose had been… Scarring to say the least, even to a deranged AI. So it made sense that he left him, and later when he infected Agent Florida, or Butch Flowers as he was calling himself, being in control of a dead body was just plain creepy.

"Seven…"

Then that time with Grif, and Simmons, and Sarge, and Donut, every single time something had been… _off_. Everything felt just plain wrong, the only people he had ever been comfortable in were Tex, Church… And Doc.

"Eight…"

Tex he could understand, she was violent, ruthless, and very much like himself, Church began to made sense once they had discovered he was the Alpha, they belonged together, even if it sounded like a cheesy line from a romcom it was true... But Doc… 'Why do I feel so damn comfortable around the purple bastard!'

"Nine…"

'He is annoying beyond belief, all he ever does is talk about peace and bullshit medical terms… And yet if it wasn't for him, I would have died along with the rest of the AI's in the blast from the EMP.'

Back at Command he had the sense to ditch the Meta and latch onto the Puma's radio signature, much like Gamma did with Sheila, as soon as he realized what Agent Washington was planning. He rode with the simulation soldiers until they reached Valhalla where Doc found him weak and crippled from the close call with the EMP. Doc took pity on him and give him a chance to redeem himself, he knew O'malley wouldn't last much longer without a stable connection to latch onto and offered himself as they host yet again.

"And ten! There, feel better?" Doc finished but O'malley didn't say anything, too deep in thought to register Doc's words.

Doc had covered up for him again and again whenever he went and blew something- or someone up, like just this morning when he had come across a discarded rocket launcher in front of red base on one of their weekly check ups. He had instantly picked it up out of habit and tried to blow a hole in the closest person besides himself. Grif. Thankfully Doc had taken over their shared body at the last second and managed to derail the weapon slightly, causing it to strike the ground instead. He tied to come up with a plausible excuse for the odd behavior but Sarge even encouraged it saying, "Nice going Doc, but next time try 'n get a headshot!"

"O'malley?" He asked, frowning slightly at the AI's unusual lack of response. "Are you there?"

Doc's concerned tone snapped him back to reality and he quickly came up with a sharp response, hoping to deter any suspicion he had, "Of course I'm here, you idiot! Where else would I have possibly gone?"

O'malley tried to focus on his and Doc's conversation but the nagging memory and the troublesome thoughts that came with it just kept coming back to the forefront of his mind.

'He could have easily let me die… But instead he risked his own life by letting me live and even further willingly allowing me to infect him,' There was nothing for him to gain from this, and yet he continues to do it anyways. If anyone else found out Doc would surely be killed for keeping the demonic Omega AI alive.

"O'malley, what's the matter?" Doc tried again trying to coax an honest response from the small grey armored figure.

O'malley didn't respond as thoughts and unanswered questions swirled around and around inside his mind like they were trapped in a vortex.

Since the rest of the simulations troopers didn't know he was still around the radio channels were open every once in a while, and even if jumping to someone else would alert everyone that he was still alive, and possibly even end up with him dead in the end, wasn't that better than wasting away the rest of his days with the idiot of a medic… Right?

"...Dufresne," O'malley said at length, the use of Doc's real name catching is focus and curiosity. "Why did you let me live?"

Doc seemed rather shocked by the unexpected question, "What do you mean?"

"When you discovered me you could have warned the others, or even just walked away and left me there, but you didn't," He said uncharacteristically, giving voice to his thoughts. "Why?"

Doc's face broke out into a happy smile as he realized what the AI was asking and he replied happily, "Well friends don't let friends just die, silly! I had to save you!"

"Friends! You fool! Who ever said we were friends!" O'malley yelled mostly out of annoyance when he didn't get the answer he was looking for.

"Of course were friends, O'malley," Doc said in the same joyous tone that O'malley hated.

"Friends," He muttered darkly. "We are not friends."

"Being friends isn't such a bad thing," Doc said, still smiling as O'malley sneered at him, trying to put it into terms the literal embodiment of hate and anger could understand. "Friends help each other out, so I save your life and someday, you have to return the favor!"

Doc wasn't really pleased with his explanation but O'malley was beginning to understand so it was good enough.

"…Friends," He said slowly, rolling the world around in his mouth. It tasted bitter and unwelcoming to him. "Like a partnership based on favors."

Doc frowned a bit but it was still progress, no matter how twisted. "No... More like, people who trust each other and will do things for the other because they care about them."

"And what makes you think I _trust_ you and _care about_ you?" He said bitterly at the new explanation.

"Well I did save your life, so you owe me your trust?" Doc said hopefully.

O'malley paused and his projection flickered for a moment as he considered this. 'Friends? With the purple moron?'

Doc waited as he pondered over the thought and metaphorically crossed his fingers and hoped for the best out of the little grey man who stood on his shoulder. "I trust you, and you owe your trust to me. So doesn't that make us friends?"

"This doesn't make you any less of a fool," O'malley said curtly.

"I'll take that as a yes!" He filled in the blank for him, "Now come on, we've gotta finish the check ups, I think Donut is next!"

The AI let out an audible groan as the purple armored medic stood up and began the short trek to the red base from their hiding spot in the shadows of the cliff. O'malley retreated and his holographic image flickered and disappeared but his thoughts still lingered on the topic of friends.

'Maybe being friends isn't such a bad thing after all…' He pondered with a grin on his incorporeal face. 'Maybe we were friends before I even realized it.'

Doc began humming and he suppressed the incredibly overwhelming urge to duct tape their mouth shut. 'There I go again!' O'malley scolded himself, 'It's not _our_ mouth, it's _his_ mouth.'

He figured if being friends meant he had to be friendly then it was going to take some getting used to. For now he would consider their relationship purely as a partnership, him inhabiting Doc's body and that was all.

But maybe… Just maybe…

He said the word again. 'Friends.'

Maybe that word wasn't as bitter and uninviting as it had first seemed.


	2. Part 2

O'Malley was not happy. Then again, he was never happy. But now Doc could feel the annoyance and hatred radiating from the back of his mind. It was very distracting when he was trying to do a medical scan of the members of blue team, but at least the AI was quiet.

"Alright Tucker, you're fine!" He said in a forced joyful tone, consciously trying to remain optimistic despite his friend's bad mood.

'Friend,' he thought, bringing a half smile to his face at the obscure but nice thought.

He walked over to where Wash was awaiting his own mandatory check up, leaning against the wall casually though still seemingly alert and ready.

Doc definitely noticed a change in his ex-captor from their time shared when he was a prisoner to the recovery agent and the Meta. Before Wash seemed tense, constantly irritated and on edge, but now he seemed far more calm and serene and every once in a while he would even smile. Though make no mistake, he wasn't completely at ease. He was still healing, though from what Doc remained clueless.

"This isn't going to be a thing where I have to turn my head and cough, is it?" he asked, his face twisting in a way to almost resemble a suspicious glare, but he was smirking in a playful way.

"Oh no," Doc said with a smile and a shake of his head. "I just need to scan your vitals. I have no doubt that you're absolutely healthy, but command makes us perform a weekly check up of all members in the canyon anyways, though I'm sure it's for good reason."

He unsheathed the medical device from his hip and powered it on with the press of a button, making the end glow neon green as it performed a basic medical scan.

'Ooh yes, command,' O'Malley whispered bitterly inside his head. 'Then I'm sure this is completely necessary. After all, command would never make us- _you_ do something pointless. No, of course not.'

The sarcasm in the internal voice was incredibly prominent and it struck a nerve with Doc, which O'Malley observed with glee, a sense of enjoyment pulsed from the back of his mind. Mostly Doc felt the bitter emotion from O'Malley, years of being sent from base to base and left out of anything important-

"Is something wrong?" Wash asked in a worried voice, drawing Doc from his thoughts.

"What do you mean?" Doc said innocently, hoping the ex-freelancer didn't notice how his pulse picked up when thoughts of Wash noticing O'Malley raced through his mind, sending waves of worry though his head.

"You were frowning, is there something wrong with the scanner?" He asked sounding concerned.

"I-I was?" he asked. Shocked, he reached up and pressed a hand to his mouth. He hadn't even noticed the change, but here he found himself almost scowling without even realizing.

Between waves of panic he could feel O'Malley pause, holding his breath as he was swept up in Doc's concern before he suddenly started yelling. 'Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! You fool! There's no way he could know!' Hastily he let off feelings of reassurance and calm trying to get Doc to stop unconsciously drowning him.

What seemed to be slowly but surely O'Malley succeeded in getting him to calm down, but in reality it all happened in a moment. Before Doc spoke up again in a level voice, "no, actually you're perfectly healthy besides some residual scarring."

"Okay, good." Wash's voice was calming, but he looked at Doc with concern.

'He knows something's up.' Doc couldn't even tell if it was O'Malley's thought or his own.

'We have to get rid of him before he gets too curious.' Okay, that was O'Malley.

'We can't just kill him! It would be mean,' Doc thought stubbornly back at the AI.

'Yes yes, mean,' O'Malley grumbled with sarcasm on par with Lopez.

"Doc?" he blinked once when he heard Wash's voice and found him staring blankly where he had been a moment ago with Wash waving a hand in front of his face. "...Are you sure you're all right? Maybe you should lie down."

"No, no, no," he said a little too quickly as he took a short step back, "I'm fine… I-I have to go now."

'Just great! Now he's even more suspicious! Good going, moron,' O'Malley bit at him harshly.

'It's not my fault! I panicked!' Doc thought back as he made his way quickly away from the older man and out of Blue base, forgetting to check up on Caboose who was set to be examined after Wash.

'Let's just go back to the house and make a plan to resolve this,' O'Malley thought, then paused and said, 'Ugg, make a plan. You must be rubbing off on me, let's just kill them all, starting with the freelancer.'

'No,' Doc thought sternly, but he felt a little happy at the thought of giving O'Malley some of his good traits. 'Maybe those meditation sessions are working...'

'No. They're not. And if you make us- _me_ listen to one more of those crappy CDs then I will take over and torture the pink one with your hands.'

'...His name is Donut...' he thought without anything better to say.

'Yes, that's what I thought,' O'Malley though with a dark chuckle.

Doc sighed as he approached his and Donut's shared house in the middle of the canyon. It was definitely possible he was rubbing off on O'Malley, but just as much as the AI was getting better, Doc was also receiving some of his bad habits, sure come self-confidence was nice, but beyond that… The medic unconsciously reached up to cover his mouth, thinking back to the uncharacteristic scowl that he had worn.

Even though Doc didn't notice the action, O'Malley did. He felt the small trickle of what almost seemed like worry and possibly sadness leaking from the other's thoughts but he didn't say anything, instead leaving the purple medic to think while he logged off for a while. After all Doc worked better when O'Malley was offline and they were going to need to come up with, something brilliant to avoid getting caught.

When O'Malley logged back online several hours later it was not nice and slow like leisurely waking up from a nap on Saturday. He was startled awake by an overwhelming sense of fear and panic rushing through his system, terror gripping at his heart with blazing fingers. He felt like he was back in the project.

He quickly took in his surroundings, trying to calm the irrational feeling with the familiar sights of the small eco-friendly house he despised. The grey clay walls covered in pink decorations and paintings, the roof made of straw and sticks that made him glad it never rained, the large hand woven rug that covered the entire floor. But no matter what his rush of adrenaline refused to settle.

'Calm down, you idiot.' He thought to himself and continued scanning the small room, like he did almost every night with nothing better to do.

The small wood stove in the far corner Doc and Donut use to cook banana bread. The rounded doorway that lead to the bright outside where the sun never set. The box radio Doc had O'Malley rewire to pick up new agey radio stations from Earth, even though they were lightyears away. Doc out of armor lying on his cot, tossing and turning frantically in his sleep.

'Wait... Doc,' he thought as it dawned on him. 'I'm not the one who's panicking, it's the purple moron!'

Realizing their thoughts were intertwined he quickly set to work sorting them apart again, sorting through the random pieces of thought and feeling that came with sharing a mind.

Rage… O'Malley.

Pacifist… Doc.

Project Freelancer… O'Malley.

Vegan… Doc.

Friends with Doc… O'Malley.

'Wait, what?' O'Malley paused for a moment as he came across his own subconscious thought.

Pushing it aside he set to work on the real problem, he could feel Doc's night terror, even separated. It wasn't unusual for the AI to be awaken in the middle of the night, forcing himself from a bad dream into waking reality to calm himself, but Doc almost never had nightmares. When he did though, they were bad.

O'Malley only thought for a moment before taking a risk. His grey holo projection flickered into life, small purple flecks drifting from his armored form. He spared a single glance at Donut which quickly turned into a scowl before turning back to Doc.

'If the pink one wakes up now the jig is up.'

"Doc!" O'Malley hissed under his breath, trying to wake the other. "Doc!"

The medic's only response was to turn again, facing away from the noise as he struggled in his sleep. O'Malley blinked out of existence before appearing directly in front of his face, the low glow of light his projection gave off illuminating the outline of Doc's short brown hair.

"Doc!" He hissed again, a little louder this time. "DuFresne!"

Doc's stirred again at the mention of his real name and his eyes opened a crack, just enough to make it that the small AI projection was floating right in front of his half lidded cocoa brown eyes.

Then O'Malley heard a lazy, unpolished thought float from the others mind. 'O'Malley… O'Malley's calling me… No one else…'  
"Yes, yes, it's me you fool," he snapped impatiently, just remembering to keep his voice down. "Now wake up!"

"Mmm, no. L-let me sleep, O'Malley… O'Malley," he mumbled in his sleep, a little too loudly.

O'Malley flinched as he heard rustling noise from Donut's cot, silently prepared to disappear if he needed to. He waited for a long moment as Doc turned over again but no more noise came from the pink one's side of the bed. O'Malley peeked cautiously over Doc's shoulder, finding Donut sound asleep like he hadn't moved at all, his breathing slow and even.

O'Malley hadn't gotten Doc to wake up, but the man was no longer giving out fear like candy at a parade so he figured he had done well enough. He waited for a bit longer to make sure that Doc wouldn't fall back into his bad dream before feeling satisfied and logging off once again.

In the morning everything was normal. Donut woke Doc up with a kiss and breakfast in bed, Wash made the blues run morning drills, and Sarge ordered Simmons around while Grif took a nap in the shade.

Later in the afternoon Donut went down to red base like he usually did and Doc set to work on the garden, entertaining himself with growing vegetables and talking to O'Malley to pass the time until someone got injured.

O'Malley sat on top of a yellow and orange striped squash, occasionally flickering back and forth while Doc picked cucumbers from a steadily growing vine that crawled up the side of the wall.

"So what did you come up with to distract the freelancer?" O'Malley asked, speaking aloud because speaking internally for long amounts of time often gave Doc headaches.

"I figured we could just act natural and hope he forgets about it." Doc replied cheerfully.

"...That is the most foolish plan I've ever heard," O'Malley said after a moment, irritation growing.

"Well if we do anything to try and convince him otherwise it would just make him more suspicious!" Doc countered, trying to defend his lack of a plan.

"We should just kill him, get it over with so-" O'Malley started but stopped abruptly and flickered into nonexistence as he noticed Donut approaching.

"Hey, Doc!" Donut called cheerfully as he hiked up the shallow incline to their house against the wall.

"Oh! Hey Donut! What's up?" He asked, wiping his muddy hands off on a rag as the lightish red armored soldier approached.

"The blues need you, something's wrong with Caboose," Donut told him in a worried voice.

"Oh geez, the one time I forget to give him a check up!" Doc said, standing up as a worried expression crossed his features.

"It sounded pretty bad, we'd better hurry," Donut said, leading him away from the garden and towards the blue base besides the waterfall.

'The idiot? Oh yes, I like him,' O'Malley thought with a gleeful chuckle as Doc followed Donut down to the stream. 'He was fun to control, so much strength and so little intelligence.'

'Don't even think about jumping into him, O'Malley,' Doc said, unrelentingly, 'We agreed that-'

'Yes, yes, yes, I won't jump into anyone else, no killing, no murder, no massacring.' O'Malley rattled off in an exasperated tone. 'So many rules… Why didn't they just open their radio channels?'

'No jumping-' Doc started again but O'Malley cut him off.

'No really, why would the blues send Donut to fetch us- _you_? Why didn't they just use their radios?' O'Malley said in a low conspiratorial voice.

'I-I'm sure it's nothing,' Doc assured him, trying to ignore the suspicious feeling O'Malley was emitting.

O'Malley only grumbled in response, but began watching Donut for any hints of a trap as they neared blue base. At the entrance, Donut paused and turned to Doc, motioning for him to go first. He didn't say a word and his lips were pressed tight, sadness lingering behind his eyes.

'Okay, it's definitely a trap.' Doc thought, or possibly O'Malley, it was had to tell with his heart pounding in his ears.

'No, no, no! It's not a trap! It can't be! Donut wouldn't do that to me!' Doc tried to convince himself, clinging to the hope that he could trust his lover.

Doc put on a fake grateful smile and pushed past his fears, plunging into the shadowy interior of blue base, the only lights being the small glowing blue lines along the walls leading deeper into its depths.

'Listen, DuFresne,' O'Malley spoke quickly as they progressed towards the main room. 'If this is a trap, which is definitely is, don't. Say. _Anything_.'

'What? Why?' Doc questioned, they could see the main room now, getting closer with every step.

'I have a plan,' he said simply as they emerged into the larger room.

Despite all Doc's hope, it was indeed a trap. Doc yelped in surprise as Caboose's strong hands grabbed his wrists and held them up behind his back, preventing him from moving and sending jolts of pain up his arms when he tried to squirm, and Wash was standing in front of him, his cold eyes like steel, like they were before.

"Doc," Wash said, like you would greet a business associate.

"Washington," Doc replied with equal formalities, only it wasn't Doc's voice. It was O'Malley.

He felt Caboose shudder and tighten his grip and O'Malley let out a dark laugh, filled with evil joy at his reaction, and Doc had to bite his tongue not to squeak in pain.

"Omega," Wash addressed the purple armored man's other half.

Doc felt a rush of pure hatred crash over him like jumping into a pool of ice water as O'Malley snapped, "I'm not Omega! Omega is dead."

"Fine then, who are you?" Wash replied, unfazed by the sight of the usual pacifist baring his teeth at him like a wild animal.

"It's O'Malley," Donut answered for him as he entered Doc's view, tears brimming in his watery blue eyes. "We need to get him out of Doc's head!"

Doc watched helplessly with a crushing feeling of desperation and betrayal. 'Donut no! It's okay! I'm fine!' he tried to say, but O'Malley blocked him mentally and continued on.

"Yes, you wouldn't believe the awful things I've done in just the short time I've been here," O'Malley lied through his teeth, silently wishing Gamma were here to do help him.

'No, Gamma died in the EMP, and so did Omega. I am O'Malley.' The thought flickered, there one moment and gone the next as he continued on his charade.

"I'm afraid your poor doctor will never be the same," O'Malley said with a twisted grin, shaking his head in mock sadness.

"He's a medic!" Donut practically screamed at the psychopath.

O'Malley ignored Donut and continued on. "I infected him and forced him to keep me a secret, I told him if he didn't I would kill you all, starting with you." He turned to face Donut as he scowled, then his face softened into a sort of maniacal grin as he said. "Oh yes, he has a soft spot for the pink one, it was fun making him dream every night of killing you with his own two hands… All the blood."

Donut's face twisted in horror and his eyes widened while Wash just glared down at him, disgusted.

'O'Malley stop! O'Malley what are you doing!' Doc yelled inside his head, trying to get back in control of his own body.

"Shut up, you fool!" O'Malley hissed out loud before turning to face Wash again. "He wants to talk to you, too bad."

"Omega," Wash said in a threatening tone, taking a step forwards.

"I am not Omega!" O'Malley howled in rage, his eyes lighting up like embers. "And don't get any closer, I can harm him, even from here."

'O'Malley, please! Pease! Don't do this! let me explain to them!' Doc begged, mental tears running down his cheeks like rivers.

O'Malley had to beat back the urge to give in to the man's pleas, instead telling him, 'If they know you willingly saved me, they will kill you, or if you're unlucky you might be left to die on your own. It's better this way.'

'No! No! No! No! O'Malley! No! Stop! Stop!' Doc pounded on the mental wall, trying desperately to stop this, to change it in any way.

"I think you're bluffing," Wash said in the physical world, staring O'Malley down.

"And what if I'm not?" he said, his grin spreading wider across his face.

"Then, we'll just have to take that risk," Wash said solemnly as he reached for his pistol.

"Wash! No!" Donut grabbed his arm, but the larger man pushed him away, cocking the gun as Donut stumbled backwards.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" O'Malley roared as Wash pressed the loaded pistol to Doc's shoulder.

In that instance, O'Malley went into bullet time. Donut screamed, Caboose looked away, Wash took a breath, Doc cried out, and all of them froze.

O'Malley quickly set to work, he figured he only had a second before Wash pulled the trigger so he acted fast, using his rage to help him move swiftly as he transported himself into the ex-freelancer's neural implant, loading himself into the spot where Epsilon had once driven him mad and attempted suicide inside another person's head.

In that half second which stretched out into a full minute, O'Malley rifled through Wash's memories till he came to the one he was searching for.

Allison.

Without pausing he brought up the memories, memories of Tex, memories of torture, memories of sitting alone in a dark room for years on end. None of them his, but all of them disastrous.

He left quickly as he could after that, returning to Doc's mind and deactivating bullet time, awaiting a moment for escape in the oncoming chaos.

It all happened very quickly after that. Wash screamed and fell to his knees, the pistol clattering to the ground as he buried his face in his hands. Caboose practically dropped Doc and ran to Wash's side as he screamed, "Allison!" over and over. Donut backed away from the whole mess, watching terrified with wide eyes as Doc's body stumbled and made a break for the exit.

O'Malley ran as fast as he could, far away from the voices receding steadily behind them.

'What was that!' Doc yelled as they approached the exit of blue base.

'I told you I had a plan, you fool!' O'Malley replied harshly.

'What did you do to him?' Doc asked, his voice overflowing with fear and confusion.

'Now, there's bound to be someone waiting for us outside base,' O'Malley started, ignoring Doc's last question.

'But-' Doc tried but O'Malley cut him off again.

'Just repeat what I say, Wash won't be out long,' O'Malley explained briefly, thinking back to the Mother of Invention when the Director had accidentally screamed out the name of the doomed woman.

'Wait, O'Malley please-' Doc stopped in surprise when he was thrust back into control of his body and he stumbled at the sudden switch.

Doc tripped out into the sunlight and was immediately confronted by the members of red team and Tucker.

'He's gone, he jumped to someone else,' O'Malley ordered in their head.

"H-He's gone! He jumped to someone else!" Doc spluttered, not knowing what else to do in the whirling storm of confusion.

"Thank god!" Simmons said with a sigh of relief.

"Dang nabit, that damned AI! He must have jumped into Grif!" Sarge announced with complete confidence.

"Wait, what?" Grif exclaimed as the red leader pulled his shotgun from his back and aimed it at him.

"Wait, how do we know you're not lying?" Tucker stopped the two reds, turning attention back to the medic.

'If I were in control you morons would already be dead!' O'Malley yelled, getting a little off track.

"If he were still here, then I wouldn't- No, not like this," Doc stopped, lifting his head to face the gathered reds and blues as Wash came stumbling slowly out of the base behind him, supported on a shoulder by Caboose, Donut followed close behind but refused to look at the ex-freelancer that had almost shot his lover.

'DuFresne. Stop.' O'Malley commanded in a threatening tone, but Doc didn't listen.

"I let O'Malley infect me," he admitted to the others, keeping his voice from wavering. "I found him after the EMP and I made him promise that if I saved him he wouldn't hurt any of you."

'I said, stop! I had a plan! You're ruining it!' O'Malley raged, uncharacteristic fear and anxiety pooling in their mind.

"After the EMP?! That thing went off months ago!" Simmons exclaimed with wide eyes, realizing how long O'Malley had been there without them noticing.

Disregarding Simmons outburst and the others shocked expressions he continued, "all that stuff he said before about torturing me was all a lie, he made that up so you wouldn't hold me responsible when he was captured, but really he hasn't been torturing me, if anything I've been the one torturing him with yoga and meditation CDs… But he's been getting better! I swear on my mother's grave!"

"…Doc…" Donut practically whispered as everyone fell silent.

Wash growled, breaking the silence. "Prove it."

"W-what?" Doc stuttered, turning to face the blue and yellow armored man.

" _Prove. It._ " he repeated coldly, staring at Doc as if he could see straight through his mind and glare at O'Malley.

"I, uh, don't think-" he started but Wash's grip tightened on the pistol he had almost been shot with once before.

"Umm, okay… O'Malley?" he asked out loud.

'No.' The AI responded curtly.

"Please? He's gonna shoot us, and this time he won't hesitate long enough for you to… Do whatever it was you did," Doc reasoned.

'I had a plan and you fucked it up! You got us- yourself into this so you can get yourself out,' O'Malley told him stubbornly.

Doc sighed internally and began shoving O'Malley gently towards the front of his mind, making him take control of their body.

'Hey! Stop it, stop it, st-'

"-op it, you damned _fool >!"_

_Everyone flinched slightly when O'Malley's harsh voice came from the medic's body, his expression going from calm and kind to harsh and angry in less than a moment. O'Malley surveyed the faces around him. Everyone was staring at him, expectantly, warily, curiously._

_"Yes, hello, what do you all want? Diner and a show?" He snapped at them._

_Wash spoke up in the silence saying, "Ome- O'Malley, I want you to answer three questions, if you lie or I don't like your answer then I will shoot you. We all have our radios off so there's no one you can jump into."_

_O'Malley let out a short chuckle. "Except the blue moron, he's had his radio on the entire time I've been here, trying to find Church on an open channel."_

_"What?" Wash said steely, turning to glare at Caboose._

_"...Oops," Caboose said unapologetically._

_"Well turn it off!" Wash ordered quickly._

_"Oh! Uhh… Click," Caboose said, saying the word click instead of actually turning off his radio._

_"Oh my god- never mind," Wash sighed turning back to face O'Malley. "Question number one, how do we know we can trust you?"_

_"Believe me, if I wanted to kill you I would have done it already, and I don't even need a body to do it. Those memories of yours are very potent torture weapons, it would certainly be a shame if you were to be... Reminded of them," O'Malley told him in a malicious tone. "You'd probably go insane and kill everyone here! So very unstable, Washington."_

_'You're supposed to be making them trust you, remember?' Doc reminded him gently._

_'Shut up,' O'Malley thought commandingly._

_Wash was silent for a moment while he absorbed what the AI had told him before continuing onto the next question without commenting._

_"Question number two, why don't you want to be called Omega any more?"_

_"Omega is dead," O'Malley hissed aloud. "Omega was a tool to freelancer and a slave to the Meta. I am not Omega."_

_When he said it Doc felt memories brush past his conscious, glimpses of a blonde woman in army regulation camo, a man in an EVA helmet, a woman in black armor, and a burning man made of flame. He silently noticed that faces seemed to stick with the AI rather than the sounds of their voices, or the way they moved and fought._

_"Okay," Wash said, satisfied enough with the answer. "Lastly, why Doc?"_

_"What?" O'Malley narrowed his eyes, suspecting some kind of trap._

_"Why did you choose Doc as your host?" Wash clarified._

_This time the memories that stirred were of fixing the purple machine in the caves, the power generating plant with the motivational posters hanging from the walls, long days in Blood Gulch coming up with devious plans, stealing Lopez to create the weather machine, shooting rockets at the reds and blues, Doc's smiling face when his eyes lit up and small wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes, and most of all the cool nights when Doc, Lopez, and the red zealot would be asleep and O'Malley would stay up, just watching every small movement that the others made and listening to the sound of the giant propeller blade spinning slowly outside the window and the ocean lapping against the sand far down at the beach._

_O'Malley quickly answered the question with a lie. "Well not everyone in this canyon was lining up to let me infect them, Doc was just the first one who came along."_

_'O'malley, what-' Doc started but the AI shushed him, trying to hear what Wash's response would be._

_"...Fine, but if you so much as look at anyone, I swear I will snap your chip in half and throw it into the goddamn ocean," Wash said not taking his eyes away from O'Malley's._

_Donut looked relieved and smiled happily, while the rest of them seemed almost content, still wary but also glad Wash wasn't going to shoot Doc._

_"What. You trust me just like that?" O'Malley criticised them, slightly confused._

_"Dude, I got hit by a fucking tank because of Donut and never even brought it up, I think we forgive you. Either that or we're all just really passive aggressive," Grif chimed in._

_"Nope, I'm sure we're all very much active aggressive," Simmons said with a glance at Sarge which he was glad the southern man didn't notice._

_"Yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine," Tucker said with a shrug. "We've survived worse."_

_Soon after that the group disbanded. It was getting late, though no one could really tell since the sun was still high in the sky, so each team went back to their appropriate bases and Donut and Doc retreated towards their small house by the wall._

_"You have a lot of explaining to do, mister," Doc said, poking Doc in the chest for emphasis._

_'Uh, O'Malley? Do you think you could do that thing? You know, where you tell me what to say? Please?' Doc asked nervously, already dreading the upcoming conversation._

_O'Malley laughed darkly before logging off, not saying anything._

_'O'Malley? O'Malley?' He heard Doc's fading thoughts as he settled into unconsciousness for the night._

_Soon O'Malley just became a regular part of the day as everyone settled back into the usual schedule. The red and blues would bicker, Doc would visit once a week for check ups, and Donut and Doc would garden and cook and listen to new agey music._

_Really the only difference now was O'Malley didn't have to hide every time someone walked by. Sure everyone was still suspicious of the AI at first, especially Wash, but it became more and more apparent he was just a more violent version of Church. Big surprise there. Everyone got used to his insults and threats, knowing he wouldn't go through with any of them. Or more so that he couldn't go through with them because of Wash's still prominent threat._

_Most importantly though was the fact that O'Malley became more and more comfortable with them, settling into their routines and getting involved in their bickering. It was just like having another addition to the team._

_During the nights, Doc would often stay up long after Donut had fallen fast asleep, not saying anything, simply listening to the quiet chirping of space crickets and enjoying the warm breeze with the small AI projection. And in all honesty, O'Malley enjoyed having someone to share the time with._


End file.
